Swept Away Volume One
by SFDT
Summary: Cloud is happy, adventurous young kit who takes after his father in looks and personality. He has a nice life and doesn't think anything is about to change. And then the family is split in two, broken and destroyed, with no hope of ever recovering each other. Cloud and his father have no idea how to make their family whole once more, and then fate intervenes...
1. Introduction

**Introduction:**

_Swept Away: Volume One_

[_Authors Note:_

_This is the first volume in the Swept Away series. I plan to have two books following Cloud, and perhaps a prequel following Casey and Ingrid._

_I have this story posted on two different sites, and I have on fan who site-hops to support me. _

_If you become a fan of my story, I'd appreciate it if you could comment more than once, or PM me and tell me what you think._

_I am open to reviews, critique and advice on anything you think doesn't work. __J _

_Thank you for reading, I hope you enjoy my story! :D_

_Xxx-SFDT_]

**Summary: **

Cloud is happy, adventurous young kit who takes after his father in looks and personality. He has a nice life with his mother, father and brother, and doesn't think anything is about to then the family is split in two, broken and destroyed, with no hope of ever recovering each other.

Cloud and his father have no idea how to make their family whole once more, and when fate intervenes, it seems unlikely Cloud will ever make it home once more...

**Cats:**

Cloud: the main character.

Cloud is a thick furred dark gray tom with white feet and blue green eyes

Puzzle: Clouds brother

Puzzle is a pale sandy ginger tabby tom with dark amber eyes and a long tail.

Casey: Clouds father

Casey is a pale gray tabby with dark stripes, keen yellow eyes and a long tail, part fishing cat from an illegal breeding operation

He is a kittypet

Ingrid: Clouds mother

Ingrid is a orange tabby she cat with white legs and a white muzzle, and bright sky blue eyes.

Ingrid is a forest cat

Willow: silver tabby she cat who lives in the woods

Frog- dark brown she cat, Willows daughter

Birch- pale gray she cat with dark speckles, Willows daughter

Slider- black tom with a white mark on his chest and thick fur, a rogue

Thumbs- gray tom with white legs and six toes on each foot, loner who eats kitty pet food

Gizmo- an old frail Himalayan (long, cream colored fur that darkens to brown on her face, legs, and ears, and white paws) she cat with pale blue eyes, kitty pet who lives outside

Mousepad- an energetic dusky brown she cat, a kitty pet


	2. Prologue

Cloud opened his eyes when he felt a cool breeze sweep over his kit-soft pelt, wakening him from a pleasant dream. He blinked, attempting to focus his attention on his surroundings. His sleep-filled eyes watered until he blinked once more and cleared them. Cloud watched his mother enter their leafy shelter under a blackberry bush, her white paws stained with dirt and mud. Ingrid leaned down and licked her son's forehead, her blue eyes soft and deep with love. Cloud gave a short purr and stretched, before curling closely to his brother while his mother twisted around them, encircling them with the warmth from her belly fur when she laid down.

The tiny tom kit pressed against her fur, snuggling to her, unconcerned with the world beyond the warmth and milk and soft brush of fur over fur. Nothing would be any different from any other day, nothing but warmth and love and the three curled around one another in the den. With a kit's way of thinking Cloud was of the idea that his world would always be this way, and that his world always had been.

How wrong he was.

And how terrible the world would prove to be.


	3. Chapter One

Stars reflected in the night sky of indigo and silver on a pool of rainwater that had yet to dissipate into the air. Slight night breezes whispered about and the rustles of leaves and branches filled the air.

Cloud followed his father under the ferns and beneath the huge, rusted monsters, cars his father called them. Large metal cars that ate humans, and spit them back out after a long, rumbling ride, so said his father. Cloud passed underneath one, shrinking down in fear of it's immense size. The striding grey shape of his father continued on confidently, giving Cloud a reassurance without realizing.

Casey paused, waiting for Cloud to catch up, and slunk out from beneath the large, suspended car. Starlight and moonlight glinted off the shiny edges of the bulky form, reflecting into Casey's yellow eyes as he stood waiting for Cloud.

Cloud and his father were quiet, both of them hesitant to break the silence of night with words unhindered by the light of the sun. Shadows warped and shifted menacingly around them, and the rustle and whisper of leaves rushed and receded when the wind dropped off. Cloud kept to the quiet because his father did, and because he understood in his young mind why this quiet should be kept. Cloud was like his father in the same shade of fur and set of his shoulders and chin, and Cloud was like his father in the stubborn clench of his jaw or narrowed glance of his eyes.

Cloud could hear his mothers voice whispering to him when he lay in his nest of moss and warmth,_ 'You're so like your father. Casey is proud of you, you are so like him.'_

Ingrid loved Cloud and his brother, Puzzle with a deep tenderness only a mother can behold. She was immensely proud of the two, and was not shy about it. She could often be heard praising them to the neighborhood alley cats, the loners who slunk around on occasion, or the kitty pets who took more to conversation.

Cloud tumbled after his father in the gloom of night, recalling with a glow of favor how his mother had cooed and exclaimed over his first catch of prey only a few sunrises before. He had caught a sparrow, quite by accident in Caseys yard. It had been hopping around in the early afternoon, and the humans were no where to be seen. They had left in their roaring clamoring cars in the morning, and Casey had been taking Cloud around and introducing him to the two kitty pets who lived nearby.

After meeting Gizmo, an old and frail she cat with bright blue eyes and long fur, Cloud had investigating the patch of ferns behind the old yellow car next to Caseys home. There the sparrow sat, hopping for walking and plucking at the ground for a meal. The air felt stifling with excitement as Cloud dropped into a crouch he had learned by instinct, perfected by Casey and Ingrids long instruction. He crept forward on slow paws, and just as the bird caught sight of him- he leapt, white paws clapping together on the bird and pulling it down to the floor of the yard.

His claws unsheathed as he tried to keep hold of the sparrow, flapping and squawking under them, pinned to the leafy ferns. Cloud lunged without knowing what he intended to do, and his teeth snapped over the birds neck. The sparrow struggling, and Clouds teeth clamped tightly down as the prey began to still.

So it was that Cloud experienced his first kill.

.


End file.
